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Biography, exhibitions and performances

1932Born on
August 6, on the farm Slettemark in Naustdal, Sunnfjord, in Norway, the youngest of four children.

1945Before his final year of elementary school, he celebrated his 13th birthday just as the atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima.

1948-50College in Førde.

1952-55Norwegian Telecom operator course in Lillehammer.
Worked in Otta and completed his military service with the German Brigade in Regensburg.
Study tour to Rome.

1952Worked in Oslo. Evening studies at the Klemetsrud Malerskole.

1956-59Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole in Oslo.

1959Admitted to the National Academy of Art under Reidar Aulie, but moved to Stockholm after a few weeks.

1960-62Gerlesborgsskolan in Stockholm.

1962-65Guest student at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm.

1963Interrupted his studies under Lennart Rodhe and moved out to studios on Skeppsholmen with Erland Melanton as his teacher.

1963-65Participated in exhibitions in Lidköping, Karlstad, Halmstad, Spånga and Norrtälje.

1964June UKS Spring Exhibition in Oslo.Refused by the Autumn Exhibition. Took part in protest exhibition of refused artists.Course in plastic techniques at the Hantverksinstitutet. His first experiments with the material. Won a competition for the decoration of a monumental window in the Hallstahammar City Hall. The plastic window was installed in 1966.

1965 May The assemblage “No. I 1965” exhibited as “Picture of the Month” in the UKS showcase in front of the House of Parliament in Oslo.July The Vietnam picture exhibited in the showcase.Aug The Vietnam picture was attacked with an axe and received police protection. Later stoned in Stavanger.First separate exhibition at the Woodstock Gallery, London.Started teaching at Grundskolan för Konstnärlig Utbildning, Stockholm. Fired in 1968 due to refusal to assess pupils according to a standard distribution curve.Sept Exhibition in Västervik with K G Nilsson.Oct Exhibition in Värnamo with Inga Bagge.Dec Participated in “14 Unge” in Stavanger, Oslo and Trondheim.

1967March Exhibition at Galleri 66, Stockholm.May Exhibition at Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm. “City images”.June UKS Spring Exhibition.Sept Happening in front of Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo. Norway’s first ever!Happening in Bredäng Public Library, Stockholm.Two assistants.Moderna Museet, Stockholm.“Plastic”.Dec Galleri Observatorium, Stockholm. His second separate exhibition is a total environment, which he inhabits together with Robert Jäppinen. Two plasticising performances, “Symfoni Realista Nr. I og II”.

1968March “A Plastic Opera with Fried Eggs”. Happening with Robert Jäppinen at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, during a three-day presentation of international underground avant-garde, “Bombay Free School”.
“Symfoni Realista Nr III - diamanten Hué”. Happening with Robert at an art festival at the Dipoli University, Finland.April Happening with Robert at the Department of Art History at Stockholm University, assisted by five students.May Action at the annual ceremony of the Royal Academy of Art, Stockholm, 13 assistants.June Anti-militaristic action in Norrtälje, 7 assistants. July Action with Robert against the World Church Meeting in Uppsala.Aug “Soot sausage with shrapnel mustard and plastic ketchup”. Took over a blown-up hot-dog stand.Sept Galleri Observatorium, solo exhib. “600 White-and-Black Police Hallucinations in Colour”. Multi-media exhibition.Oct Diagnosed as “mentally insane” by a socio-psychiatrist, prescribed a jar of Hibernal and offered a room at a psychiatric clinic.Dec Galleri Café Mejan, solo exhibition. “600 White-and-Black Police Hallucinations…”

1969March Skånska Konstmuseum, Lund. “Underground”. Plasticising of audience.April Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. “Nordisk kunst”. “Hibernal splatter” - plasticising of clothes with Robert.
Founded “Högpartiet” (The High Party) which stood for election to Parliament in 1970.
Diagnosed as a “borderline case” by the social security office psychiatrist.June “Lesson in the Art of Falling”. Performance where Kjartan walks the tightrope in a Stockholm park.Aug Film show at Uppsala University.Dec Observatorium, solo exhibition. “Kjartan’s Mental Unhealth - A Borderline Case”.

1972May Action with Nixon posters at Labour Day demonstrations in Stockholm. Eight assistants.June Published “Nixon Head Catalogue”.Aug Exhibition at NWT Galleriet, Karlstad, together with Robert.Nov Exhibition at Göteborgs Konstmuseum. “A Thousand and One Nixons” and “Faces old and new”. Performance at the opening in a white dress.

1974Feb Exhibition of “Nixon Visions” in Umeå. Jan Horne started on his film about Kjartan. First version censured by NRK. Second version shown in 1978.March Arbetets Galleri, Malmö, solo exhibition. “Nixon Visions”. Graphic Triennale at Liljevalchs, Stockholm. Passport with Nixon photo issued and stamped. Performance as fisherman at the International Art Fair in Basel. Later performed at Grafikhuset, Stockholm, and Linds Konsthall, Lund, with Sture Johannesson.July Passport is exhibited in the press. Sweden’s six mayor daily papers had the passport photo on the front page.

1975Feb Poodle performance at Liljevalchs, Stockholm. Submitted himself as a work of art to the Spring Exhibition.March Poodle performance at Sture Johannesson’s exhibition at Galleri Legèr, Malmö. Poodle performance at inauguration of Malmö Konsthall. Poodle performance at Høvikodden Kunstsenter, Oslo.June Poodle performance at the International Art Fair in Basel.Aug Poodle performance at Liljevalchs during one of Olle Granath’s tours of the Moderna Museet collection.Sept Kjartan opened his own “Galleri Konst”. The first exhibition was STOP-KONST, KONST-STOP”. Video.Dec Poodle performance at the French Embassy in New York. “The Art of Wagging the Tail”.

1977Feb “Nixon Visions” and the passport included in the one-year tour of an exhibition arranged by the collective Gruppa Ljunej in Yugoslavia.Mar Moderata Museet closed until October after fascist activists smashed windows with stones.